Bill Desowitz's Recent Posts

Contrary to the high profile jobs at Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, PDI/DreamWorks and other prestigious studios, the real growth area for Bay Area animation jobs is coming from other industries looking for people trained in computer graphics, 3D environments, simulation and other animation-related skills.

STAR WARS EPISODE III, the last of the prequels to the legendary George Lucas franchise, began shooting at Fox Studios Australia, June 30, 2003. According to Starwars.com, the first scenes were shot in a new set environment with returning stars Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) and Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi). Also on set was R2-D2. The final installment will see Peter Mayhew reprise his role as Chewbacca, a part he has not played since THE RETURN OF THE JEDI in 1983.

Dan Lombardo has been named president of Cinesite Hollywood, and Jerry Pooler is stepping up to a new role as exec director, creative. Lombardo will also continue in his new role of general manager. He joined the facility two years ago as vp of production. He succeeds Ruth Scovill as president. Pooler joined Cinesite in 1992 when the facility pioneered the use of digital technology during the restoration of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.

HP's newly introduced Intel Itanium 2-based servers and workstations, delivering up to 50% faster application performance than previous Itanium 2-based systems, are perfectly suited to rendering large digital models.

The new Intel Itanium 2 processor with 6 MB of level 3 cache powers one- and two-way HP Workstations, as well as HP Integrity servers, which range from one- and two-way entry-level servers to the 64-processor Integrity Superdome server.

Sony's CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE (with Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Orphanage supplying the bulk of the VFX) may have won the box office derby, but its $37.6M was less than spectacular. So far, the 2003 summer box office is 2% less than last year's. Universal's THE HULK, meanwhile, plunged nearly 70% in its second weekend, adding $18.8M, still good enough for second place. The ILM VFX feast has earned $100.5M thus far.

After THE MATRIX RELOADED: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE climbed to an unprecedented $903, 241 in North America in its third weekend, IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. are continuing to discuss other possibilities for DMR conversion, including a day-and-date release of THE POLAR EXPRESS on Nov. 19, 2004, according to a recent Dow Jones Business News story.

Just as it gears up for more VFX feature work, Blur Studio (www.blur.com) has moved into a new, 20,000 square-foot computer animation studio that is nearly triple the size of its former Venice, California headquarters. Through an international talent search, it has also increased its artistic staff to 65, with additional talent to come.

As part of its continuing theatrical expansion in Europe, IMAX. will open a new IMAX 3D theater at Disneyland Resort Paris in June 2004, joining 46 similar theaters currently scheduled to launch throughout Europe at that time. The expansion is via a partnership with Disney as well as EuroPalaces, one of the largest commercial exhibitors in Europe.

Clio Award-winning A52 recently completed VFX work on Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/San Francisco's Goodyear broadcast campaign. The campaign's first :30 spots - one entitled BALLS and a second entitled SCREW continue airing nationwide, and a third spot will debut soon.

This campaign for Biscuit Filmworks and director Noam Murro features dramatic scenarios in which harmless, mundane objects become threatening... thereby revealing the advanced safety features of Goodyear's products.